One type of conventional fruit or vegetable product coring machine defines a core in the product by employing rotating knives to remove fragments (or shavings) from the product's core region. However, such machines have the disadvantage that they do not remove a one-piece core, which is typically more valuable than a collection of core fragments.
Another type of conventional coring machine is capable of removing a fixed-diameter one-piece core from a fruit or vegetable product. However, such machines have the disadvantage that they cannot automatically adjust the diameter of the severed core material. It would be desirable to automatically adjust the severed core diameter so that the machines could be employed to core products of varying size.
Another problem with conventional coring machines arises because the products to be cored must first be aligned with a coring knife assembly. In the process of loading the products onto the machines, their orientations are usually randomized. Conventional coring machines have employed undesirably complicated product alignment mechanisms, such as retracting arm assemblies.
It has not been known until the present invention how to remove a one-piece core from a product, so that the size of the severed core varies automatically with variations in the size of the product to be cored, with a coring machine employing a simple product alignment mechanism.